U.S., Europe allies call for Syria's Assad to resign

West's patience runs out amid crackdown on protesters

by Matthew Lee - Aug. 19, 2011 12:00 AMAssociated Press

WASHINGTON - Executing a global squeeze play, the United States, Canada and their European allies on Thursday demanded an end to four decades of family dictatorship in Syria and underscored the tough talk with new sanctions against President Bashar Assad's government.

The unified position isolates Assad further as he presses a military campaign against major demonstrations. The diplomacy left many questions unanswered, however, including how the demand for Assad's ouster can be backed up in the absence of any appetite for military intervention, and who inside the Syrian government or among the country's fragmented opposition might take his place.

The messages from Washington, London, Paris, Berlin and Brussels, Belgium, coincided with a U.N. report recommending that Syria be referred to the International Criminal Court for investigation of possible crimes against humanity, including summary executions, torturing prisoners and targeting children in the crackdown on demonstrations.

Much of Syria was quiet Thursday, although activists reported intense shooting around noon in the flash-point city of Latakia.

Rights groups say Assad's forces have killed nearly 2,000 people since mid-March. The military assault on civilians has escalated since the holy month of Ramadan began, with security forces killing hundreds and detaining thousands.

Activists said security forces killed 18 people across the country Wednesday, the same day Assad assured U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that military and police operations had stopped.

Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari accused the U.S. of waging a "humanitarian and diplomatic war" against his country in order to instigate further violence by sending "the wrong message to the terrorist armed groups that they are under American and Western protection."

In Thursday's coordinated statements, President Barack Obama and the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Canada and the European Union called for Assad to resign, saying his repression of demonstrations inspired by Arab Spring uprisings elsewhere made him unfit to lead.

The new effort signals the end of the world's thin patience for Assad, once viewed as a Western-looking pragmatist who might expand freedoms at home and help achieve an Arab peace deal with Israel.

The resignation calls were the first explicit demands from the U.S. and its allies for Assad to step down, although condemnation of his actions had been growing for weeks.

Syria presents a different case from other Muslim nations swept by unrest this year. The United States used leverage from its billions of dollars in military aid to gradually ratchet up pressure on Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak to step down and called early on for the ouster of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

Washington has little direct influence on Syria, long a pariah state accused of sponsoring terrorism.

Syria does have wider trade and other ties with Europe and the Arab world, which complicated the U.S. position, and with neighboring Iran. Iran remains one of the Assad regime's few allies, although those bonds are not deep.

In a statement released by the White House, Obama said Assad has lost all credibility as a leader and has to go.

"His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing and slaughtering his own people," Obama said.

"We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. He has not led."